So Thankful

Thanksgiving has come and gone but I wanted to just take a minute and express my gratitude for things great and small.

• My wonderful and amazing husband (I really do love him more than anything in this world - to read more about how I feel about him read 2 posts below :)
• My beautiful baby girl (I'm really not kidding when I say how beautiful she is, how did I get so lucky to have such a sweet baby)
• The Gospel (We have the most amazing gift, the gift of knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ and the Atonement. We have the knowledge of the plan of salvation, and the knowledge that families can and will be together forever. We have a true and living prophet who blesses us with modern day revelation. We have the blessing of the priesthood, and I'm fortunate enough to have a faithful priesthood holder in my home. We are blessed with the words of the Book of Mormon and can learn daily from its teachings.)
• My mom who would do anything for me (seriously, I told her we could use a few snacks during our hospital stay and she included the following: sliced honey crisp apples :) caramel, crackers, cut little slices of cheese, granola bars, water bottles, crystal light packages for the water bottles, basically enough to feed us for days and each item had so much time put in to it!)
• My dad (he has been the most amazing example in being obedient and faithful, he also has taught me how to have a great sense of humor :)
• My sisters: Jen and Mel (I could be on a deserted island with just my sisters and I think I would be more entertained and have more fun than anywhere else in the world)
• My brothers: Ryan and Dave (these are two incredible men who work so hard to take care of their families, they are ambitious, and are so loving)
• My in-laws: Bob and Sue (I have the most amazing in-laws. My parents left on their mission right when we got engaged and Bob and Sue just took me in as one of their own children. They showed me so much love and always have made sure I know that I always have someone there for me.)
• Sarge (He's been a bit neglected since baby has come, but I really do love him. We call him "the little man", he really is a little person, he has such a personality and he always looks at me as if he understands what I'm saying).
• A warm home to live in (I absolutely love our home. It makes me so happy. I love decorating and making it a place of our own. )
• Don (short for Don Carlos) and Jarvis: (We're kind of silly, but these are the names of our cars. Don tries to save us money on gas, and Jarvis has tremendous gas mileage and does save us money on gas. )
• Our piano (We were lucky enough to get Ryan's grandmas piano, it's a beautiful upright, in great condition, and brings me so much joy to let it all out on the keys).
• Saturdays (I get to have my honey home with me all day. We run earrands together, relax together and always get something yummy to eat).
• Modern day medicine (One word - epidural. Greatest thing known to mankind. Also Maalox for our little acid reflux baby, she's been so much happier since she started taking it.)
• Technology (I love blog stalking. I love email. I love texting. I love digital pictures. I love so many things that smart smart people have invented and have shared with all of us!)
• Cookies (I am a cookie snob. I love to bake them, I love snacking on cookie dough, and I love to give them to neighbors and friends. I hate it when I over cook a batch, there are few things that make me more upset. I love me a good cookie).
• Sleep (This is something I have always loved. I love taking naps, I love sleeping in, and I love going to bed as early as possible to get as much sleep as possible. But, since the babe came my sleep has turned into "resting periods" and I haven't slept longer than a 4 hour period. Some day...)
• The Utah Jazz (Ok, so this might be silly, but I really do love the Jazz [not as much since Korver left unfortunately]. We watch a good portion of almost all of the games and I love that time with Ryan. I pretend like I know the players, the game and what's going on. It's even better when they win because then I have a happy husband :)
• Laughing (A day without laughter is a day wasted. When I'm sad, depressed, upset or whatever, Ryan always knows how to make me laugh. We have good laughs together, every day.)
• Running (If my knees would let me I would run everywhere I went. I love having a goal to make it to that mile mark, or the goal to beat a certain time. I often hate it when doing it, but the feeling afterwards is exhilirating. )

Ok, that's enough for now. I could go on, but these are just a few things that make me so happy. These are just a few things why it's easy to get up in the morning and take advantage of every minute. These are just a few things that I need to remember when life gets me down. There's no reason not to love life!

Thanksgiving Day

Tell me how we live within 20 minutes of both of our parents and neither of them are here for Thanksgiving!? The Jacksons headed to Florida for a little family reunion, and the Farnsworths went to San Diego to welcome little Lucy - Melissa and Ryan's new little addition. We forgive you family :) With a little 6 week old baby and sickness flurrying around we decided it would be best to stay home (even though we greatly missed both of the very warm destinations we could have been!). Luckily we have a lot of familiy here in Utah, so we were kindly welcomed at my Uncle Harvey and Aunt Marilyn Hulmes' home for a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. Marilyns' brother Alma was there with his family, then Suzanne and her family were there, as well as my Uncle Rob and Nanny. It was so nice to be with family. The food was, of course, spectacular. There was a large selection of pies, and a pecan pie specially made for Ryan, it's his favorite. Marilyn put in some candles and we all sang to the birthday boy. We then came home and took a 3 hour nap as a family (thank you Liv). It was a great holiday.

Birthday Boy

November 24th, this last Wednesday, was my wonderful husbands birthday. He turned the big 26, he thinks he's getting old, but I like to reassure him that he's still in his prime! Ry got off work a little early, so we went out shopping for a bit then had a delicious dinner at Texas Roadhouse. I told our waitress that it was his birthday, not knowing they had a birthday saddle, haha, I was loving every minute. He's such a trooper.

I love Ryan so much. I could blog about him every single day about nice things he does or says. Since it's his birthday I'm going to take advantage of the excuse to brag about how lucky I am. Ryan is: ambitious, smart, funny, sensitive, goofy, sweet, kind, generous, handsome, strong, honest, charming, and on and on. Ryan is always thinking of others and hardly puts himself first. He has been so wonderful these last few weeks with our little girl and me. I love how much he loves Olivia. He does what he can to help around the house and relieve me from a screaming baby. He cares so much about our family and works so hard at his job to make sure we're taken care of and happy. He loves to joke around, but is never rude or offensive. He loves sports but he never makes me feel like ESPN is our only TV channel. He randomly brings home flowers and loves to make me happy. I love my hubby and couldn't be any happier. I can't wait to spend many many more of his birthdays with him :)

Grammy

My mom is so wonderful. I figured I don't have to wait till mother's day to say this. I've always heard it, but it's true, you don't truly appreciate your mom until you have a child of your own. There are several times a day that while I'm attending to little Miss Olivia I think to myself "My mom did all this with me. She had to sacrafice a lot for me. She was so patient with me. My mom has really done so much for me." And the first two weeks after Liv was born she was here holding her so that I could get a little bit more sleep. My mom did the dishes, the laundry, went grocery shopping and it was all so wonderful. I don't think she'll ever know how much it meant to us. Even now she is still such a huge help, bringing me medicine when I'm sick, bringing Liv the humidifier when she was sick, and everything else to help our little family. Love you mom!

6 Week Peak

It should be called "The 6 Week Peak - of Death". If any of you have read a baby book, or had a baby, you may be familiar with this 6 week peak. Up until this point the baby progressively gets more and more fussy. Cries for no reason - often. Doesn't sleep as much, or for as long. Takes twice as long to go to sleep because they have to be soothed until their eyelids no longer flutter. Then "they" tell you that it's not when their 6 weeks old, but it's 6 weeks from their due date. So our sweet Olivia still has "one" more week of this increasing fussiness craziness. Then after those 6 weeks it's supposed to gradually get better. Oh goodness. I don't want to wish time away because I am loving this sweet little baby time, but at the same time, I count down the hours of every day.

BUT... on a more positive note (minus all that fussy business), little Liv has the cutest darn smile I've ever seen. She is finally getting more responsive and will smile back (prompted with a hight-pitched tone of voice, and a humungo smile, then she'll maybe smile back). She is much more alert, noticing lights, fans, and mobiles. We love this girl. What a doll.

Also... on a side note, I had the most amazing workout today. I finally got cleared to exercise, and I could actually go running (for the first time since like June)! I was exhausted, could hardly breathe, my muscles and joints all have forgotten how to move, but it felt amazing.

Liv's first photoshoot

Liv had her first photoshoot when she was about 10 days old. My friend Shannel just got a new camera and she wanted to test it out, so she came and took lots and lots of darling little pics of our cute girl. These were just a few of my favorites.

1 Month

One month has already gone by, but it has seemed like an eternity. The days go by quickly - even though I feel like I have done nothing but feed her, change her and rock her almost asleep little body. Baby Liv has gone from newborn to size 1 diapers, grown out of a few of her onesies and nighties, and she wants to eat every two hours (or less). We've braved out to the grocery store a few times, a stroll around the mall, and of course to visit grandparents, but I have discovered there to be nothing wrong with hanging out at home all day. She gets fussy almost every evening around 8 or 9, she refuses to sleep longer than 3 hours at a time, and she's made putting her on a schedule nearly impossible for the time being. Olivia is always moving her arms and hands giving us reason to believe she's going to be super coordinated and love sports ;) We love our baby girl and we are so excited to see her grow, but still taking advantage of cuddling this sweet little bundle.

I can't complain

So people really aren't lying when they say being a mom is hard. They aren't lying when they say you don't get any sleep. They aren't lying when they say all you feel like you do all day is feed your child. They aren't lying when they say you seriously change a dozen diapers a day. Being a mom is not an easy thing. I have had my 3 a.m. moments of tears. I have had projectile poop cover my shirt, and buckets of spit-up puddle in my lap. I have had nights when she wants to eat every other hour. I have had my moments of complete frustration-confusion-exhaustion.

But the thing is ... after looking at this cute face how can I ever complain? We tell Olivia everyday that it's a good thing she's cute because she makes the most stressful moment bring a smile to my face. I love her cute face and chubby belly. I love how heavily she breathes when she sleeps. I love the way she squeals in her sleep. I love the way she rolls her eyes and smiles when she's half asleep. I love the way she stubbornly puts her lips together when she's done eating. I love the way she puts her arms up like she's showing off her biceps when she sleeps. I love the way she squeezes my fingers so tight with her strong little grip. I love that she's my baby and she'll always be mine.

Halloween Festivities

I loved having a whole weekend of Halloween. Ryan started the weekend off by running the Halloween Half Marathon down Provo Canyon. There were over 2500 racers and the majority of them in costume. It was so hilarious to see what people actually ran 13.1 miles in (bunny suit, large banana suit, etc.). Ryan had a great run - the weather was really good for being the last day of October in Utah, there was beautiful scenery, and there was no uphill climb! Olivia and I loved watching him come race to the finish.

That evening we went to Malawi's Pizza with Ryan's family for a yummy dinner. Ryan's brother Jared and his family are here for a few weeks, so it's been fun to have a big crowd at the Jackson's. We welcomed the few brave trick-or-treaters who came out in the rain for some candy, and then we watched the new Robin Hood movie. For Halloween I didn't want to buy a costume, so I decided to make one for little Liv. What's white, orange and yellow and a favorite Halloween treat ... my little candy corn.